by Lisa Fagan

Created on: April 30, 2008   Last Updated: April 18, 2011

For more than 15 years, due to my income, Atlantic City has been the only place that I could afford to visit. It is only an hour and a half by bus from Philadelphia. To me, Atlantic City is las Vegas, Los Angeles, and Hawaii all rolled up into one.

At first, I used to go down there at least three times a year: in the summer, around my birthday in October, and then at Christmas time just to do my shopping. I would just simply hop on the Route 551 New Jersey Transit bus at the Greyhound bus terminal right in downtown Philadelphia. (The bus fare is only $12 round trip.)

I would go eat at the Sultan's Buffet in the Trump Taj Mahal. At that time, it was practically the cheapest casino buffet in all of Atlantic City. They didn't have much choices for food, but the food was just simply delicious. I also once ate at the Beverly Hills Buffet inside of Resorts, which was a little bit higher, but it had more excellent food choices.

When Merv Griffin owned Resorts, he had huge photographs of the guests that appeared on his show, including his "dahling" Eva Gabor. But after he sold it, they were taken down, and Resorts just simply isn't the same without him.

I would walk on the Boardwalk and lie on the beach; listening to tapes of "Live From the Sixties", which was aired on WFIL in the back late 1980's; and go inside the Ocean One Mall, which was right across from Caesars. I also tried my luck at the casinos as well. I usually played at the Taj Mahal and Resorts. But on my 39th birthday in 1996, my aunt and I went to the Showboat, and we both hit it big. My aunt won about $300 and I won $80. In 1997, I went into the Wild West casino and won about $25.

The last time that I was to Atlantic City was in September of 2004, when I went to a job fair for disabled workers, and attended a few seminars on Social Security Disability. It was held at the Atlantic City Convention Center, and I was there just a week before the final Miss America pageant was held there.

But as a Catholic visiting there on either a Saturday or a Sunday, it is no vacation away from God. I would attend Mass at St. Nicholas of Tolentine Church on Pacific Avenue, between the now-defunct Sands and Resorts.

When it came time for me to leave Atlantic City, I would go have dinner somewhere on the Boardwalk, cut through Caesars, and head back to the bus terminal to take me back home to Philadelphia.

The only times that I spent more than one day there was in November of 1980 and in October of '81. I had stayed at the Best Western on Indiana and Pacific Avenues, right across the street from the Sands.

Nowadays, if you go into the casinos and play the slot machines, you no longer get the rolls of coins, or even put the coins in. My uncle even told me never to gamble by myself, so now, I'mg taking his advice. I'm only going to down there when he goes. And besides, I have difficulty walking due to my excessive weight and arthritis in my knees.

So if you live in either Philadelphia, New Jersey, or even New York; if you can't afford to go to Las Vegas, Florida, California, or even Hawaii; go to Atlantic City.

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